Coast FIRE

What Coast FIRE means

Coast FIRE is the point where your existing invested assets are likely to grow into full financial independence even if you stop making new contributions.

In practice, Coast FIRE is about slowing down rather than stopping completely. It can support moves like:

• Taking a lower-stress job
• Going part-time
• Starting a business that may pay less at first
• Taking a career break

You are not fully financially independent yet, but you may no longer need to maximize savings to reach that point.

The basic intuition

Coast FIRE is a time-and-compounding story:

• Early on, contributions matter most
• Later, portfolio growth matters more

Coast FIRE is the transition point between those phases.

How to model Coast FIRE

A useful Coast FIRE model needs:

1. A realistic starting net worth
2. Reasonable investment return and inflation assumptions
3. A clear change in cash flow rules after that point

In Plan in Decades you can model this by:

• Adding a milestone for Coast FIRE
• Reducing contributions after that milestone
• Comparing the slower path against your original plan

Coast FIRE is sensitive to assumptions, so treat it as a planning benchmark, not a guarantee.